Karabo Kgoleng and Jean Fryer Review 100 Years of Struggle by Heidi Holland
Verdict: carrots!
Author Heidi Holland’s 100 Years of Struggle: Mandela’s ANC explores the past, how it informs the present and how it might make or break the future.
To give her narrative shape, she has centred it on the man who is internationally recognised as being one with the struggle-era ANC.
“I originally, rather naively, thought I would write a book in 1986 on Mandela, only to discover, once I went in search of information, that he’d been in prison for such a long time that so little was known about him, so I couldn’t write about him.
When I first heard about Heidi Holland’s new book, I have to admit that the thought of ploughing through a doorstop of ANC history was rather daunting.
However, I quickly realised that I was in for a pleasant surprise. Not only is the book accessible in terms of its size, but it also tells the story of the ANC through the anecdotes of its members, thereby offering a fresh take on Africa’s oldest liberation movement.
Heidi Holland started researching this book in 1986 while the ANC was still banned. Whilst initially intent on writing a book about Mandela, she had to abandon this idea due to the fact that there was hardly any information available about him. It was then that she decided to write a book on the ANC and started doing research, from Mandela’s home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape to the ANC offices in Lusaka; gleaning information from interviews, any books that were available and the ANC publication Sechaba. An earlier version of this book was released in 1990, the same week that Mandela was released from prison, and this updated version was released in the first week of January 2012 as the ANC embarked on its centenary celebrations.
Book Details
- 100 Years of Struggle: Mandela’s ANC by Heidi Holland
Book homepage
EAN: 9780143528791
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Apr
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